Facebook: A Timeline

The College Years

Incorporated into the lore but not the company's official bio is Facebook's beginning as Facemash, Mark Zuckerberg's collegiate version of Hot or Not. Zuckerberg faced disciplinary action after taking photos from the online facebooks of Harvard students and pitting them against each other, two at a time. In an email to The Harvard Crimson after he took down the site, Zuckerberg said, "Issues about violating people's privacy don't seem to be surmountable. I'm not willing to risk insulting anyone."